INSTITUTION IBerlin’s lost Renaissance sculptures rediscovered in the Pushkin Museum
Art historians have discovered 59 Italian Renaissance sculptures missing from Berlin’s collections since the Second World War in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, according to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. They include works by Donatello, Luca della Robbia, Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, Andrea del Verrocchio, Francesco Laurana and Mino da Fiesole that were housed in the city’s Bode Museum - then known as the Kaiser Friedrich Museum - before the war.

INSTITUTION IIBillionaire Leonard Blavatnik donates millions to V&A
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is to name the entrance hall of its new extension after the American billionaire Leonard Blavatnik. In recent years, his family foundation has been a major donor to Tate, the National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts, as well as the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

COLLECTORMoscow’s Garage Museum launches Russian art triennial
Garage Museum of Contemporary Art announced on Thursday, 9 June, that it will launch a triennial contemporary art exhibition next spring. Dubbing the show “the first triennial dedicated to Russian art”, the exhibition is due to feature work made in the last five years by artists from across Russia.

ARTISTRussian political artist Pyotr Pavlensky released from custody with $15,000 fine
A Moscow court has ordered political performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky to pay nearly 1m rubles (about $15,400) for setting fire to the door of the Federal Security Service (FSB) headquarters in a performance called “Threat” last November. Pavlensky was released from custody on Wednesday, 8 June, and given a fine of 500,000 rubles for damaging a “cultural heritage” site and 481,000 for the cost of replacing the door - but the artist told reporters that he would refuse to pay.

OTHERRubens painting unseen for 80 years unveiled in St Petersburg
The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg unveiled a painting on 6 June that has been restored and authenticated as awork of Peter Paul Rubens after being hidden from view for over 80 years.